If it's not open it's broken.

My OnePlus 5 Return Experience

I’m hoping that this post will be of some use to anyone looking to purchase a OnePlus device, now or in the future. As an online-only retailer here in the Americas, there’s currently no way to hold one of their products in your hands before you commit to buying it—unless, perhaps, you live near New York City and can attend one of their launch events. To put worried would-be buyers at ease, OnePlus offers a 15-day “no hassle” return, which I got to test on my recent OnePlus 5 order.

The first step in the return process is to create a service request on the OnePlus support site. If you want a refund you’re asked to include some details as to why, but this is optional if I remember correctly. Anyway, almost immediately I received an email confirmation of my service request, and a few hours later I got another email from a company called FutureTel, a Canadian authorized service centre for OnePlus. Their message included an RMA number and a FedEx mailer, so all I had to do was pack up my phone, attach the mailer to the box and drop it off for shipping.

And here’s where we get to the only issues with my return experience. While these FutureTel people were inspecting my phone I received two separate and cryptic emails from OnePlus that read like this:

Hello Friend,

This is to inform you that your RMA has now been cancelled.

This was immediately followed by a FutureTel email with a new RMA number and, somewhat distressingly, another mailing label. I contacted someone from OnePlus through their support chat portal, and was told that this was merely a procedural hiccup, and that FutureTel was still in the process of inspecting my device.

The process wrapped up yesterday, with separate notices from OnePlus and PayPal that my refund had been issued; when all was said and done the entire return process took about 8 days. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a no-stress return, but “no-hassle” seems fair. I have heard that U.S. returns are subject to a 10% restocking fee if there’s nothing wrong with the phone (ie. if the user just doesn’t like it), so keep that in mind if you’re planning to order.

As for the OnePlus 5 itself, I don’t think I can recommend it. The manufacturing defects that I experienced with mine, along with the reports I’ve read about the upside-down screen and even upside-down audio (?) makes me think that OnePlus cut too many corners in the making of what ended up being their most expensive device yet.